Tottenham Hotspur center back Luka Vuskovic is a generational talent who has Germany's biggest legends like Lothar Matthaus raving about his wisdom and athleticism, yet by loaning the teenage sensation to Bundesliga side Hamburg, Spurs deprived themselves of a world class player both this season and potentially for good.
When Hamburg made the decision to acquire Vuskovic, they did so knowing full well they were acquiring a young talent with the potential to immediately make a difference in their Bundesliga fortunes. Whereas Tottenham are now actually the ones playing for their own survival, Hamburg, at the time of signing Vuskovic before the 2025/26 Bundesliga season started, were the ones aiming to sign the Croatian in the hopes that he would help them avoid the drop.
Far from it. Hamburg are pretty safe, and Vuskovic has been even better than expected, taking the reigns early in the season and immediately winning award after award. He is by far the consensus No. 1 defender in German football right now, and if it were not for the sheer brilliance of the Bayern Munich attacking trio of Luis Diaz, Michael Olise, and Harry Kane, Vuskovic, at just 19, would be the Bundesliga Player of the Season favorite. And there are already plenty of those within the Bundesliga who are ready to give Vuskovic their vote.
Luka Vuskovic is better than what Tottenham have
It boggles the mind, though, why Tottenham didn't just keep Vuskovic in the first place. While it is unfair to expect Spurs to have known Vuskovic would be this good, it does speak to the lack of competence of their own internal scouting and player evaluations that they did not realize Vuskovic could be a key difference maker this season for Spurs. Both Thomas Frank and now Igor Tudor are at their best when utilizing a back three, which would have been far more feasible with Vuskovic, who is right there with Alessandro Bastoni as the best defender in the world in this setup.
Tottenham did get a close look at Vuskovic in the preseason, and it was obvious even then that the Croatian international was special. Spurs supporters were giving him Sergio Ramos regen shouts, and that included even the more measured members of the fan base.
What Spurs need to do is learn from this misstep. Vuskovic could have made a huge difference this season and would have been even better than Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero. They have been far too reluctant to give chances to their youth players or even young, productive members of the squad like Lucas Bergvall and Mathys Tel. Vuskovic has to be a lesson to Spurs that they need to do a better job of evaluating, valuing, and trusting their young players, because they are missing out on serious opportunities to help their squad in the short and long term.